While expanding a company is a challenge in every respect, there are plenty of stories where that expansion has been a flop for a successful company. If you’re about to take the next step in your growth with a company expansion, you might not know which signs to look for. When you’ve outgrown your market, it might not look like success and instead resemble something closer to failure.

Here are five signs that might not signify success to you but will surely lead to it if you respond correctly.

1. Profits Have Dropped

If you’ve noticed that your profits have dropped, you might not be doing worse than you were last year. In fact, you might be doing better. However, you need to ask if you’re delivering the services you should be at the level that you should be in your career.

If you’re more than five years into providing steady and quality services to your customers, it’s time for you to ask yourself if you’re growing. Most companies are so focused on the maintenance of their day to day services that they overlook elements of growth. When you miss chances to grow, customers might go elsewhere.

If you noticed dropping profits even while maintaining your same degree of quality services and products, consider whether or not you should be growing.

2. Customers Ask For More Attention

Sometimes your customers will be explicitly asking you for more attention. When customers are asking for your time and you can’t give it to them, that means it’s time for you to grow. Customers deserve to get attention and if you’ve made them ask for it, that means you’re on the verge of losing them.

When a business first starts out, you usually know every one of your customers on a first name basis. As you grow, it’s reasonable for you to lose close touch with your customers, however, that’s a problem in some industries. In some industries, a personal touch is everything.

If you can no longer provide personalized attention to your customers, they’re going to seek out service providers who know how to offer it. You don’t want to lose the customers who you’ve built trust with over the years. Instead of risking them going somewhere else, expand so you can give them attention.

While you might think it’s a waste of resources to have staff devoted dealing with your customers’ feelings and needs, you’ll find it’ll pay off.

3. You’re Running Out of Resources

One of the ways that you know it’s time for your company to expand is when you see you’re running out of resources. When you’re low on resources, that means you’re in demand. You might carelessly translate this as a problem with your products and services, but think again.

When you have no space left for employees, stock, or service providers, you’ll find that it’s time for you to expand your company. Space is one of the most overt problems you can have as a company that needs to grow. When you see it’s an issue, take it as a good sign and check out this page.

If you’re constantly running out of stock, you need to expand and quickly. Consumers have little patience for a company that never has what they need in stock. Even if it’s their favorite product, they’ll go with a subpar product that they know they’ll get their hands on.

Another way you’ll know it’s time to expand is when everyone on your staff has too much on their plate. When your team is stressed out, you need to take that seriously. Stressed out teams make mistakes, so you need to make sure you don’t put too much on anyone’s plate at one time.

4. Customers Want An Expansion

While they say to never read the comments on your videos and the content you put online, that’s just not a possibility for a company that wants to grow. When you listen to your customers, you ensure that you’re able to give customers what they’re looking for. When you show that you’re listening, you’ll win life-long loyalty form your customers.

You need to listen to their feedback, especially if they’re telling you they want an expansion. If your customers are constantly saying they want service in a region that you’re not providing it in, then you need to look into whether or not that’s feasible.

Put out a survey asking your customers what they want to see from you and regions where you could be providing more service. When your customers are in search of expansion, do some research and see if that’s a good idea for you and your company.

5. A Competitor Just Freed Up Space

Companies come and go in just about every industry. If you’re in a region where you’re dealing with a few different competitors, it’s likely that one of you will go under at some point. When one competitor goes down, that’s exactly when you need to expand.

You should be prepared to take up space in those openings where competitors have left gaps. Keep your ear to the ground and check in on the other companies in your industry from time to time. This ensures that you’re ready when something changes in your world.

When a competitor frees up space, expect everyone to start fighting for their old customers or their share of the market. If you’ve done your research in advance, you’ll be uniquely poised to take on that part of the market.

Company Expansion is a Challenge

If you’re looking at whether or not to consider a company expansion, you need to look at concrete numbers and make some looser predictions. While it’s a challenge to look ahead and not feel like you’re being overly optimistic or pessimistic, make a list of best and worst case scenarios.